Timeline for Correct way to handle users requesting scripts/formulae?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 15, 2019 at 15:45 | comment | added | Alex M | "If the original poster hasn't tried or done any research ("not working plz fix"), the question is at best worthy of downvotes and probably should be closed as Too Broad... such questions should include what was tried, what resulted, and what was expected." I'm new, and I hang out mostly in Excel QAs. I feel like this is what the policy should be - but in fact lots of high-rep users answer lots of questions like "how do I do [something basic] in Excel" that show zero effort or broad applicability. Other users add the 'not a script writing service comment'. End result is: QAs with both. | |
| May 23, 2017 at 12:39 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://stackoverflow.com/ with https://stackoverflow.com/
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| Feb 22, 2016 at 22:29 | comment | added | Bob | @BenN Yes, every script answer should be accompanied by an explanation of how the script works, when possible. "Here, run this" is usually not a good script answer. On the other hand, it's also alright to pose the answer as a software recommendation (as per our usual guidelines on software rec answers) if the answerer just happens to find the question interesting enough to write a custom solution - in those cases, the question itself is typically just a general question, not one specifically asking for a script. | |
| Feb 22, 2016 at 16:42 | comment | added | Ben N | @Bob Yes, you're right; there can be many answers to almost any question. The thing about script requests is that they don't really help anybody else. It's like the give-a-man-a-fish thing; we should be explaining the tools rather than building whatever specialized stuff people want. | |
| Feb 22, 2016 at 5:21 | comment | added | Bob | > Nowadays, the preferred reason is Too Broad, since boatloads of different scripts could accomplish the same thing. -- that argument would equally apply to just about every non-theoretical question here. Of course, there's usually a preferred way of doing something, and that is what we should strive to provide. I'd also recommend not trying to follow Stack Overflow too closely - Super User is purposely different; while SO expects questions to be about specific aspects of code, we accept questions asking how to accomplish a task, which may or may not be answered with a script. | |
| Feb 1, 2016 at 14:26 | history | edited | Ben N | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
accidentally a phrase, advice about repair
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| Feb 1, 2016 at 14:13 | history | edited | Ben N | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
accidentally a phrase, advice about repair
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| Feb 1, 2016 at 4:26 | vote | accept | Jonno | ||
| Feb 1, 2016 at 5:42 | |||||
| Feb 1, 2016 at 4:26 | comment | added | Jonno | Another great explanation - thank you very much. Will do my best to adhere to these rules going forward. | |
| Jan 31, 2016 at 20:45 | history | answered | Ben N | CC BY-SA 3.0 |